Integrating Social Innovation into the Curriculum of Higher Education Institutions in Latin America: Insights from the Students4Change Project

Alfonso Unceta, Igone Guerra and Xabier Barandiaran
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Alfonso Unceta: Sociology 2 Department, University of the Basque Country, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Igone Guerra: Sociology 2 Department, University of the Basque Country, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Xabier Barandiaran: Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Deusto, 20012 San Sebastian, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: In the last two decades, social innovation (SI) and social entrepreneurship (SE) have gained relevance and interest within the framework of academia at international level. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are key players in promoting innovation and social entrepreneurship initiatives that respond to multifaceted challenges. They support strategies on the basis of the strengthening of participation, collaboration, and cooperation with society and its local communities. However, the approach of Latin American universities to SI and SE has been very uneven in the way they have understood them, integrated them into academic programmes, and transferred knowledge to society. On the basis of the experience of the Students4Change project, we sought to understand the role of Latin American HEIs in promoting social innovations by analysing the experiences of 10 participating universities to formalise a pedagogical programme on SI and SE in their institutions. The results suggest that there is still a need to formalise an academic syllabus that is specifically designed to promote social innovations and to train universities in this endeavour. This paper contributes to the identification of the main levers of change, strengths, and challenges that Latin American universities face to institutionalise SI and SE in their contexts.

Keywords: Students4Change; social innovation; social entrepreneurship; higher education institutions; Latin American universities; academic syllabus; university strategies; Erasmus plus program; social innovation ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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